To celebrate Vikings Live, we have replaced our Roman alphabet with the runic alphabet used by the Vikings, the Scandinavian ‘Younger Futhark’. The ‘Younger Futhark’ has only 16 letters, so we have used some of the runic letters more than once or combined two runes for one Roman letter.

British Museum’s Africa Programme Update

Since 2005, the British Museum’s Africa
Programme has been working closely with national and independent
museums across the African continent to develop training
initiatives, as well as sharing skills and expertise for mutual
benefit and in direct response to local needs and priorities.

Africa Programme aims to support capacity-building in museums
and encourage long-term commitment to the heritage profession, with
a current focus on East and West Africa. Generously funded by the
Getty Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the Africa Programme is
an essential part of the Museum’s international activity.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum
said ‘Africa is - and always has been - a key area of focus for the
British Museum. A museum devoted to the history of humanity must
have Africa at its core. I am delighted that thanks to the support
of the Getty Foundation and the Ford Foundation we are able to work
in partnership with our colleagues in East and West Africa to
develop and deliver museum skills and ensure that African museums
are equipped for the future’.

Ford West Africa Programme

The Museum has been working with key partners in Nigeria, Ghana
and Sierra Leone since 2007 and has developed dynamic and positive
relationships with colleagues in museums and heritage institutions
across the region. As well as delivering in-situ knowledge-sharing
workshops the Africa Programme has been instrumental in developing
collaborative exhibitions (including loans to and from Africa),
research projects and focused work placements at the Museum and in
regional partner UK museums. In September 2012 the Museum received
a further three year grant from the Ford Foundation to continue its
work in West Africa. Exciting new initiatives are now being planned
with African partners over this phase.

This summer the British Museum is supporting the pioneering
Origins of the Afro Comb exhibition at the Fitzwilliam
Museum and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge.
Nigerian material features prominently in this exhibition and the
Africa Programme has facilitated a work placement for staff from
the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria (NCMM)
to the Fitzwilliam over the summer. Four educators and curators
from Abuja, Lafia and Lagos museums will be exchanging their
knowledge and skills with the team in Cambridge as they contribute
to an innovative community programme. The British Museum, which is
also loaning a large number of beautiful combs and sculptures to
the exhibition, will share the hosting of these visitors from
Nigeria during their stay.

Getty East Africa Programme (GEAP)

The British Museum received a three year grant from the Getty
Foundation in 2011 to develop and deliver the Getty East Africa
Programme aimed at building core museum skills in three key areas:
collections care, education and exhibitions through in-situ
workshops in Mombasa and Kisumu. These workshops are highly
practical in structure and the content includes comprehensive
training materials for use following the workshops by the
participants who are then encouraged to train their colleagues.

GEAP is delivered in partnership with the National Museums of
Kenya (NMK). However, the initial call for applications went out to
colleagues from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and these countries are
represented across all three training modules stimulating dialogue
and the exchange of professional skills and knowledge in the
region.

An important aspect of the GEAP training is the follow-up
assignments that participants complete in their home museums. These
projects help to consolidate their learning and bring real benefit
to their own museums. The first year of GEAP has just been
completed. The immediate reaction has been positive and the
subsequent application of knowledge and ideas is already proving
beneficial to collections and visitors, particularly in the area of
collections care. GEAP participants from Uganda Museum who received
their collections care training were quick to pass on their growing
knowledge and skills to other colleagues through a special training
workshop in Kampala. Equipped with affordable tools and materials,
staff are now rolling out sustainable new methods of collections
care across the Uganda Museum. A robust system of housekeeping and
pest management has been implemented that includes making and
laying insect traps and recording pest activity. Solar bagging has
been effective in treating infested objects. All staff are trained
to clean objects and to maintain high levels of cleanliness in
stores and public areas of the museum.

Another example of programme impact is at the Meru Museum in
central Kenya, which has transformed the care of its collections of
gourds, pottery vessels, skin garments and beadwork. The small team
at Meru has worked very hard to clean and store their objects
appropriately and to protect them from the threat of pests. This
diligence has been specifically acknowledged by senior management
at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and, as a result, further
investment in staff skills has been made at Meru Museum.

Peter Koinange Mayienda at Meru Museum
commented ‘When the Director of Museums, Sites and Monuments came
over, he was impressed with the improvements I had made and
facilitated my travel to the Cultural Heritage Store in Nairobi
where I spent two weeks working with Mr Ray Balongo (another GEAP
participant). While there, I learnt more about store management and
documentation. I am very grateful to the GEAP for helping me to
become a museum professional. I look forward to the next
training’.

Basic training in object-based learning from GEAP has also
inspired new interactive sessions for school students in parts of
Kenya, these include storytelling, role play during tours and use
of objects in observation sessions for schools. While developing
their techniques, museum educators travelled to observe experienced
teaching colleagues work with schools in Nairobi National
Museum.

For further information

Produced twice a year, the Africa Programme newsletter features
reflective reports by active participants and forms a valuable
additional medium through which to share new activity, innovation
and good practice among colleagues. The current newsletter and
further information about the Africa Programme can be found via the
following link:
www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/skills-sharing/africa_programme.aspx